Friends
“You sure this is a good idea?”
“I’m positive. I went over the data with exhausting detail, so I know exactly what happened… and how to replicate it. Wherever Sonic went, we can go there too.”
“But Sonic had two Chaos Emeralds with him. Could that be what sucked him in?”
“It was, but I’ve figured out how to send us over even though we don’t have any Chaos Emeralds with us.”
“…All right, then. Let’s get to it. Knowing Sonic, he’s likely already made some friends and some enemies.”
-SCENE BREAK-
“Ponies…” he muttered. “This world is populated by walking, talking ponies. Some with wings and some with magic horns.”
“I wonder if Sonic’s around here somewhere…”
“Oh, you know Sonic?” a passing unicorn said. “He showed up a few weeks ago out of the blue. Said he was from another world. He’s already been a big help around town.”
“A few weeks? It’s only been five days where we’re from.”
“So you’re from where he’s from? Well, if you’re looking for him he’s down with his friends and a lot of other ponies at Sugarcube Corner.”
“…I’m guessing that’s the place that looks like it’s made of giant candies?”
“That’s the one!”
“Thanks for the help, ma’am”
The two made their way toward the bakery. As they approached, they heard a rough and angry female voice yelling, and then saw a blur of brown and white. They looked up, spotting a rather pissed-off gryphon flying away from the town.
“Jeez” an unmistakable voice said from inside. “Talk about bad attitude… That girl needs to learn to lighten up.”
“I know, right?” replied a voice that, the two boys swore, they could hear the pink in.
They walked up and through the swinging doors, entering what was obviously a just-interrupted party. Sonic glanced over in their direction, and then pulled a double-take as he realized who it was.
“Tails! Knuckles! What are you guys doing here?! How?!”
“Sonic!” Tails ran over to his blue friend, Knuckles leisurely walking up after him.
“Tails figured out a way to get us over here,” the red echidna said, “though we just discovered something strange.”
“Strange how?” the hedgehog asked.
“Apparently, time’s flowing faster here than on our world. It’s only been five days from our perspective, and yet you’ve apparently been here for a few weeks.”
“Huh. Well, anyway, it's good you guys are here. Apparently, some threat from our world is gonna cause trouble in this world at some point within the near future. And when it shows up, now we can show ‘em what the old team is capable of!”
He turned to Tails.
“You left a note or something at your lab explaining where we are, right?”
“Yep!” the two-tailed fox responded. “I gotta tell ya, it took me 18 hours of work to figure out exactly what happened and how to replicate it without a Chaos Emerald.”
“Tails… Remember what we talked about…”
“I didn’t do it all at once, Sonic! I got some sleep!”
“Good. We remember what happened that one time you tried inventing after staying up for three days straight…”
“Aw, c’mon. That hole in the roof patched up pretty well, we were able to put your shoes back together, and Knuckles’ tail fur grew back.”
The echidna grumbled at the memory.
“I gotta hear that story…” Rainbow Dash muttered with a grin.
“Oh, I forgot introductions! Everyone, this is my little child-prodigy buddy Tails, and my super-strong gem-hunter, Knuckles. Guys, this is about a third of the population of Ponyville.”
The six girls (and Spike) walked up.
‘I’m Twilight Sparkle. I’m the librarian here.”
“She’s also an extremely powerful mage’ Sonic added, “and the personal magic student of this world’s Princess. She’s, uh… a little OCD, though.”
“I'm Spike” the little purple dragon said. “I’m Twilight’s assistant. I handle most of the cleaning, cooking, categorizing, note-taking, sending & receiving messages, spotting flaws in Twilight’s plans, handling diplomatic stuff occasionally…”
“Basically she’d be screwed without him” Sonic bluntly summed up, earning an embarrassed “Hmph” from Twilight.
‘The name’s Dash” the sky-blue pegasus cut in. “Rainbow Dash. I’m the fastest-flying pegasus in all Equestria!”
“Basically, she’s an airborne version of me, except more boastful” Sonic said to the other two, whispering the last part so she wouldn’t hear it.
“I’m Pinkie Pie!” the pink pony bounced in a circle around the trio as she talked. “I’m Ponyville’s premier party planner! This was a party to try to get that mean gryphon Gilda to lighten up, but that didn’t work, so how’s about we make it into a welcoming party for you two?”
“Pinkie loves throwing parties” Sonic explained. “She’ll look for any excuse to.”
“U-Um…”
Tails and Knuckles looked to see the light-yellow, pink-haired pegasus hiding behind Twilight, wide green eyes looking nervously at them.
“I-I’m… F-Fl-F-Fluttershy…” she mumbled the last bit.
“Huh?” “What?”
“That’s Fluttershy” Sonic said. “She’s really shy, especially with people she’s never met. She’ll warm up to you given enough time, though.”
“I am Rarity, up-and-coming fashion designer” introduced a white-furred, purple-maned unicorn.
“And I’m Applejack” said the orange-furred girl in the cowboy hat. “Me and my big brother run Sweet Apple Acres. We’re part of the Apple Clan, who run a series of orchards & farms that are collectively the biggest food-provider on the continent.”
“Sounds good!” Tails said.
“I prefer grapes” Knuckles mumbled.
“Knuckles, be nice” Sonic chided.
“Hey, I never said I didn’t like apples” the echidna replied. “They’re just… not my favorite.”
“It’s all right” Applejack said. “I ain’t offended.”
“So do either of you have a place to stay?” Twilight asked. After several seconds of looking at each other, Tails & Knuckles shook their heads ‘no’.
“I have a guest room that is presently unused” Rarity said.
“We got a room back at my house” Applejack said.
“I can stay with you, if you don’t mind” Tails said to Applejack.
“…Alright, I guess I can stay at your place” Knuckles said to Rarity.
“Good!” Sonic said. “We got things sorted out already! For now, we just hang out and help out whenever needed until that prophesized threat rears its ugly head.”
“Come with me to the library, guys” Spike said to the newcomers. “I’ll show you the basics of this world.”
-SCENE BREAK-
A few days later
“Twilight, you gotta come quick!”
“For the last time, Spike, I am not-”
“Yo, Twi!” Sonic dashed into the room. “We’ve got a large and angry problem stomping into town!”
There was a loud roar in the distance, growing closer.
“…Was that what I think it was?” Twilight asked.
“Majorly” Spike replied.
They ran out, meeting up with Tails & Knuckles and running past a crowd that was going the opposite direction. Ahead, they saw a massive, semi-transparent blue bear stomping through town, taking bites and swings at roofs. In its path were three ponies: the dim-witted duo Snips & Snails, and Trixie, the boastful blue unicorn who’d rolled into town earlier that day, now minus her cape and hat.
“What’s going on?” Twilight asked the two boys.
“We brought the Ursa to town!” Snips replied.
“You what?!” was the group reply.
“Are you out of your raisin-sized minds?!” Knuckles said angrily.
‘Don’t worry” Snails said. “The Great and Powerful Trixie will vanquish it, just like she’s done before!”
“…No, I haven’t” Trixie replied, shame in her voice.
“What?!” was the two numbskulls’ response.
“I’ve never even seen an Ursa before, much less defeated one. I… made the whole thing up. When… When the crowd started turning against me, I… I panicked and made the bit about the Ursa up on the spot. But I didn’t expect anyone to believe me. I figured they’d be smart enough to know a showman’s tall tale when they heard it.”
“You obviously don’t know these two bozos” Spike replied in a deadpan tone.
At this point, the Ursa stepped up, roaring. The townsfolk were all poking their heads out to look & listen at whatever was about to happen.
“Woah’ Sonic said. “You’re a big fella, aren’t you? Guys? You ready to do this?”
“Let’s do some bear-busting” Knuckles replied.
“No” Trixie said. She was shaking, but her voice was steady. “This is… a result of my mistake. And my big brother always told me… we have to clean up our own mistakes.”
A bluish-white aura of lightning energy surrounded her, though it wasn’t very bright, and it conformed to her body rather than blazing out like a wild flame similar to other battle-auras Sonic had seen. Whatever she was using, it wasn’t as strong as it could be, but it looked to be all she could currently do.
“I don’t know why I’m doing this” Trixie admitted. “Risking my life for a town I’ve never heard of, for a bunch of ponies I’ve never met and who are probably sick of me already. Maybe my attempt to harden my heart against the world was a failure after all. I guess… for once in my life I want to do what’s right. …When I’m gone, you can all celebrate my departure, like I know you want to. Just… If this goes bad, make sure to bury me somewhere with a good view.”
And with that, she charged. Her foot speed was slightly but noticeably faster than previously, and she leapt to the side to dodge a forepaw stomp from the Ursa. She then changed course and launched herself at the Ursa in a tackle, hitting it in the side. The beast let out a loud growl as the impact briefly unbalanced it, leaving a visible mark where the electrified pony had hit it… and then bounced off it, landing on her feet and looking a tad worse for wear. She leapt over a forepaw swing… and was hit full-force by the other one in midair, sending her hurtling through the air and then tumbling across the ground.
Struggling, she picked herself back up, her lightning-aura flickering like a struggling flame. On the left side of her head, her blue fur was now staining red. She gritted her teeth and focused, conjuring up a dozen spheres of lightning-type magic, and then firing them at the Ursa at high velocity. They hit the beast in the side of the head, and the creature roared in pain and anger at having almost taken a hit to the eye. Trixie dashed forward, dodging another claw swipe and coming up underneath the Ursa’s head. She sprang up, hitting it in the chin with a lightning-charged uppercut.
Before she could land, however, the Ursa whipped its head at her. With a strangled scream, Trixie was sent flying again, along with a visible flash of blood; one of the beast’s fangs had slashed her. She landed several meters away from the giant bear, her lightning-aura now gone as she no longer was able to maintain it. A large, jagged gash ran along her right side, bleeding profusely. Her left eye was starting to swell shut, and she gave out a ragged cough, tasting a bit of blood in her mouth. She shakily pulled herself up, glaring at the beast. In her weakened state, she tried to charge it again, only to be sent flying upwards, and then slammed with a full-force forepaw swing that sent her crashing into the ground with great force.
All the while, everyone else watched in utter horror.
“Come on…” Spike muttered, worry evident in his tone. “Come on, get up and get out of there… You were annoying, but you don’t deserve this… Get up and run already…”
The dust cleared, revealing a horribly battered and beaten Trixie. Barely conscious, her left foreleg was visibly broken, bent at an unnatural angle. Her breath came in jagged rasps and wheezes.
‘I can’t…’ she thought. ‘I can’t do it… This town’s going to die and it’s all because of me, because of my showing off and bragging. And so am I. …Big brother, I’m… sorry. I… tried my best…’
The Ursa stomped toward her, intent on finishing her off, crushing her into red paste, eating her… when two figures – one blue and one yellow – stepped in and stood over the badly injured unicorn. The will and anger in Sonic’s gaze made the Ursa pause… but the sheer power of Fluttershy’s Stare actually made it take a step back.
“Enough” Sonic said, his voice showing a seriousness and calm anger hardly ever heard from him. “No pony will die this day.”
“This girl has issues and flaws,” Fluttershy said, “but she still has goodness in her Heart. I won’t let you hurt her anymore…”
Tails and Knuckles walked over to join them next, standing between the Great Bear and the fallen Trixie, glaring angrily at the massive creature. Pinkie Pie and Mr. & Mrs. Cake came up next, directing their angry gazes at the beast and standing alongside Sonic and company. Lyra and Bon-Bon stepped up soon after, followed by Applejack and Rarity, and then Big Macintosh and Rainbow Dash, and then Twilight and Spike, and soon every pony in the whole town was joining the growing crowd that stood in front of and around the barely-conscious, badly-wounded Trixie, all staring the monster down.
‘W… Why?” Trixie wheezed out.
“Because you admitted your mistake,” replied a gray-furred, blonde-haired pegasus, “and more importantly you did everything you could to try and protect us and our home.” She then returned her gaze to the Ursa, her golden eyes actually straightening out with some effort on her part (she could, in fact, make her eyes look “normal”, but it took conscious effort, so she only saved it for very rare and special occasions).
“Even though you could’ve turned tail and ran,” Applejack said, “instead you stayed, and risked your life to do the right thing.”
“And now, we’re returning the favor” Rainbow Dash continued.
“You’re not alone anymore” Twilight said. “We’re with you now.”
“You hear that, you big bully?!” Sonic shouted. “Each and every one of us will fight for her! Just as we would for anyone else! Because as far as we’re concerned, the moment she risked her life to save this town, she became one of us! And we won’t let you hurt one of our own! Do you understand me?! No-one’s dying here today!!”
Sonic’s last shout echoed through the night, further galvanizing the resolve of everyone present. The Ursa was visibly perturbed, and roared at them. The crowd responded by standing their ground and intensifying their collective gaze, projecting their emotions into their stare. The air thrummed with gathering magical energy from the unicorns, while the wind was stirred up as all the pegasi readied their wings, and the ground trembled as all the earth-ponies stomped the ground in unison. The beast took a few steps back, glaring at them all, but then turned around and began galloping back to the Everfree Forest.
Everyone released the tension from their bodies with the beast’s retreat. A few ponies gave out cheers of celebration.
“Oh, crap! Trixie!!”
The sudden shout drew everyone's attention to where Twilight stood over the blue mare.
“She’s passed out, and she’s not breathing!”
Nurse Redheart ran over to the fallen girl, Rarity next to her. The white unicorn performed a medical scan spell she’d picked up from a book in Twilight’s library.
“Not good…” Rarity muttered. “She’s lost a lot of blood, but worse is that she’s got a punctured lung. Her pulse is weakening.”
“Let me try something.”
Sonic walked up, holding both of his Chaos Emeralds. He walked up and, extending his will into the gems, released them. Both of them glowed faintly and floated in front of him, taking position over Trixie. They pulsed with ancient magical power, and the bloody gash on Trixie’s side visibly became smaller, though it was still worryingly big and still bleeding. More importantly, though…
“Her lung is no longer punctured,” Rarity said, still scanning, “and the air gathered in her chest where it shouldn’t be is gone, as is most of the loose blood in her lungs, and the fracture in her limb has shrunk and become shallower. But she still needs serious medical attention immediately; she’s lost a not-inconsequential amount of blood, and she may have some head trauma.”
As the two Chaos Emeralds returned to ethereal form stored within Sonic, Knuckles walked up and gently scooped the badly-wounded mare up. He turned to Nurse Redheart.
“Lead the way, ma’am. Go as fast as you can; I can keep up.”
Redheart nodded and took off at top speed toward the town hospital, Knuckles managing to keep pace easily; even though he paled in comparison to Sonic’s top foot-speed or Tails’ maximum flight velocity, he was still quite fast compared to most, even with a wounded and unconscious passenger. Sonic and Tails followed close behind, as did the Mane Six (and Spike, riding on Applejack’s back).
-SCENE BREAK-
Three days later
Trixie let out a weak groan as consciousness returned to her. She very quickly decided that she felt absolutely horrible right now. Her foreleg hurt, her head hurt, her chest hurt, her sides hurt… hell, even breathing caused tiny, split-second twinges of pain. She kept her eyes closed, and tried carefully moving bits of herself around. She was lying on her back. Her left foreleg was wrapped in bandages and in a splint, there was a bandage on the left side of her head, and her torso was wrapped in bandages that held the actual bandage pad to most of her right side. She felt sore all over, though the bed she was laying on was much more comfortable than anything she’d slept on in years. She felt and listened to figure out where she was, though she had her suspicions. An unnaturally clean smell, the feel of an IV in her right foreleg, the sound of a heartbeat monitor, the faint sensation – which she had to focus on to even notice – of tiny portals within her urethra and colon that led to who-knows-where (what doctor needs to use catheters when they can use less-invasive magic?)…
Yep. She was in a hospital. With effort, she opened her eyes, thanking whoever owned the place that they kept the lights dimmed. She raised her head a little, looking at herself, only to see that she was covered by a sheet-blanket up to her neck. She looked right, seeing the heart monitor and the IV, as well as the half-open door of the room. She looked left… and saw the dozens of get-well-soon cards, balloons, candies, and other gifts. It was then that the memories of everything that had happened came rushing back to her.
“One of us” the blue hedgehog had called her, and the entire town had agreed with him, all standing proud to defend her – her, the girl whose mistake nearly destroyed their town, who taunted and belittled them… who, out of what little goodness and selflessness she still felt she had, risked her life for them. Ever since running away from home as a child, Trixie had never been truly cared for by anyone she met; admired, sure, but never actually liked personally. Most ponies, in fact, could either care less about her or even would have been glad to see her suffer harm.
To have this huge outpouring of support and well-wishing… Trixie felt a strange tightness in her chest, one wholly unrelated to her injuries. She leaned her head back and looked up at the ceiling, eyes half-open and a little misty.
“Father…” she whispered. “Is there still hope for me after all? Did I do the right thing?”
“You most certainly did” replied a warm, female voice to her right.
Trixie jumped a little in surprise, looking over to see the smiling face of a white-furred, pale-pink-haired earth-pony mare wearing a nurse’s cap and with a Red Cross as her Cutie Mark, her sky-blue eyes warm and soothing.
“You were in a bad way, Trixie” she said. “We had to call in a couple of specialists from Canterlot, and even then for a little while we weren’t sure you’d make it.”
“How bad was it?” Trixie asked, her throat dry. Redheart’s assistant, a beige-furred and brown-haired unicorn, walked in, using her magic to lift a glass of cool water to Trixie’s lips, which she gratefully drank from.
“Skull fracture, slight concussion, a nasty fracture of your left humerus and a hairline fracture in your radius, several broken ribs, a punctured lung, a very large gash along your right side, and significant blood-loss” Redheart reported. “Thankfully, there was no serious brain damage.”
“What time is it, and how long have I been out?” Trixie asked as the now-empty glass was taken away from her.
“It’s 8:20 in the morning, three days after the Ursa attack.”
Trixie gave a long sigh. She glanced over at the large bunch of well-wishing gifts.
“How many ponies came by to see me?” she muttered.
“Just about all of them” the assistant replied. “It’s been a near-constant bedside vigil between a lot of different ponies as well as Sonic and his two friends, usually starting as soon as visitor hours start at 8:30 and going all the way until they end at 9:30 at night. Everyone has been worried about the girl who stood up for Ponyville.”
“And who caused the trouble in the first place” Trixie said sadly.
“To be fair,” Redheart said, “the townsfolk feel that most of the blame lies with Snips and Snails. They’re, ah… not very popular right now.”
“…I’m not used to this. To being liked…”
“You will be. Ponyville is a very friendly place. They’ve – We’ve – already accepted you. You’ll have to stay here for a while until you’re fully healed, and then you can decide if you want to stay here for good… which, to be honest, a lot of folks are hoping for.”
“Now, then” the assistant said in a cheerful tone as she magically pulled the sheets down. “Let’s change your bandages, but first let’s check your temperature.”
She then magically brought forth a thermometer. Trixie opened her mouth and lifted her tongue.
“Wrong end, dear” the assistant said.
After about a second to process what the assistant just said, Trixie’s mouth snapped shut, her eyes went very wide, and she let out the tiniest of whimpers.
-SCENE BREAK-
12 minutes later, Twilight walked down the hall toward Trixie’s hospital room, Spike and Applejack close behind her. She approached the open door, and gasped as she saw Trixie sitting up, fully conscious, as Nurse Redheart and her assistant finished applying a new bandage to her side.
“Trixie! You’re awake!”
“For real? She’s up?” Spike poked his head around Twilight, as did Applejack.
“H-Hi” Trixie said sheepishly, her cheeks still tinged a faint pink from several minutes earlier. She gave a tiny wince as Redheart finished setting the bandage.
“Y’all look pretty good for someone who was half-dead a few days ago” Applejack said.
Twilight walked over and pulled Trixie into a hug, being careful not to make it too tight or to put any pressure on her right side. The blue-furred mare blushed, not having really experienced any real affection since she ran away from home at the age of seven, 12 years ago. Applejack came up and hugged from behind, making the injured girl the filling of a ‘hug sandwich’ (she still remembered her sisters calling it that, so long ago). She found herself relaxing despite her nervousness, feeling warm and safe, and let out a calm sigh. After several seconds, the two other mares pulled away.
“Hey! Look who’s finally up!”
The group looked over to the doorway, seeing the bipedal blue hedgehog leaning against it.
“Yo!” he greeted.
“You’re… the one who came to my defense first…” Trixie said.
“Yep! My name’s Sonic; Sonic the Hedgehog. I’ve had experience in seeing the good in people… or ponies, in this case. And there’s no way I could let someone die on my watch. You did good out there, Trixie.”
“You should go find the others, tell them she’s awake” Spike said.
“On it” Sonic replied, and in a flash of blue he was gone. After several seconds, Trixie turned to Twilight.
“Was everyone… actually worried about me? After all I said and did?”
“Considerin’ that ‘all ya said’ includes how y’all were ready to lay down yer life for our town, and ‘all ya did’ includes fightin’ that Ursa for our sake, yer dang right we were all worried about ya” Applejack replied.
“Even the Mayor stopped by a few times” Twilight said. “She would’ve swung by more than that, but she’s busy organizing town repairs after the Ursa’s attack.”
“If you could’ve seen how worried a lot of ponies were,” Spike said, “especially some of the moms, and especially-especially the moms who had kids around your age…”
“Back already!”
Sonic was there again, in the doorway.
“I let the others of our little in-group know. After we’ve had our time here, we’ll spread the word to the rest of the town.”
After a few seconds, the sounds of several people/ponies approaching down the hall could be heard. Sonic moved, allowing Pinkie, Rarity, Dash, Fluttershy, Tails, and Knuckles to all file into the room (this was one of the double-size rooms, picked out in preparation for Trixie’s inevitable flood of well-wishers).
“Oh, thank goodness!” Fluttershy said, fluttering over to Trixie and pulling her into a soft hug. “I’m so relieved you’re all-right!”
“We all are” Rarity said. “That was an extraordinarily brave thing you did.”
“And awesome” Dash said. “If it had been anything less than an Ursa, you would’ve kicked its ass! ...'Course, I coulda kicked its ass all by myself if need be...”
AJ kicked Dash in the shin.
“That charged-up body blow of yours could’ve matched or even surpassed my Homing Attack in power” Sonic said (not revealing that the Homing Attack was far from his strongest offensive technique).
Twilight joined in the hug, Trixie now being between her and Fluttershy, her cheeks again going pink even after they pulled away after several seconds. Applejack noticed Trixie’s blush and slight nervousness.
“You okay?” she asked.
“I’m… not used to being hugged…” Trixie replied. “Not since I ran away from home. It’s been over 10 years, I think…”
Pinkie gasped. “You haven’t been hugged for over 10 years?!”
“Well, I… I am not exactly likeable, especially with the ‘Great and Powerful’ persona I’ve developed, and I admit I have been making a bit of an effort to avoid letting ponies become close to me. It’s been rather lonely, but I saw no other option…”
“Well, no more of that” Rarity replied. “No-one can go through life alone and come out sane.”
“Trust me on that one” Knuckles added. “I used to be the lone guardian of a magical artifact, and let me tell you I was not what you would call completely stable until I met Sonic and his group of friends.”
“Will you let us be your friends?” Twilight asked Trixie. “We can help you. Friends can make anything possible. Like my teacher says, ‘friendship is magic’…”
“…Would you really want to be my friends?”
“Of course!” all 10 present replied at once.
“I… I’m not sure I know how to have friends…”
“Twilight didn’t know what friendship was, either,” Spike replied, “before her teacher sent her here to learn about it.”
“Come on, girls” Pinkie said. “If Trixie hasn’t been hugged in over 10 years, we’ve got a lot to make up for!”
She hopped on the bed and – carefully – hugged Trixie. The other five girls joined in, subjecting Trixie to her first ever Group Hug (carefully, of course, so as not to aggravate her injuries). Her face went bright red from the blush, but at the same time a warm, wonderful feeling welled up inside her, and her face now bore a content smile for the first time in ages.
“We’ll go spread the word” Sonic said with a grin as he left, Tails and Knuckles following him out.
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ah ah
Yeah, still feels rushed. I cannot bring myself to read the rest of this story. I still don't think it's bad but it's definitely not for me. I would've preferred it this chapter was more about Sonic learning about Equestria while struggling to fit in amongst the ponies, Tails and Knuckles shouldn't have met up with him so soon. Trixie's story in this chapter was done well though, I liked it. Maybe a little out of character but it didn't bother me. Maybe I'll revisit this story sometime in the future, but for now I'm off to find something else to read.